Down Time's Over!
by TPO3
Summary: Since the Ultimate Battle, The Charmed Ones have had somewhat of a vacation from magic. What will their reaction be when that down time comes to a dramatic end? And can Billy reintegrate herself into the lives of The Charmed Ones and regain their trust?


"Phoebe, we don't have time. If we don't do this now, we'll never get the upper hand!"

Piper Halliwell headed for the stares of Halliwell manor and stated for the all too familiar root. Since the Ultimate Battle, their lives had been fairly normal. No demons, no fairies, no leprechauns, no backfires of personal gain. In fact, there had been no magic (except for that once tiny little incident when Wyatt had thrown a shield round the entire house to stop Leo from leaving again).

Everything had changed, of course, as soon as Phoebe had commented on the magical lull. 'Why do we never learn?' Piper thought.

About an hour ago, the first demon in months had come knocking for the next fight. He'd shown up at the Bay Mirror just as Phoebe got out of her car, and 30 seconds later, there was no car. Or at least, very little.

____________

_She was already late. How many more times would she get away with this? As she pulled into the parking lot she glanced round to see a young, professional looking, male shimmer into the stairwell. She parked, got out and turned to see him throw a fairly large energy ball in her direction. _

_Thank god she'd earned all her powers back. She flew straight into the air and the energy ball soared below her. As she looked towards her mini, she couldn't believe what she saw. Upon contact the energy ball grew in size and enveloped the car. Instead of the explosion she'd expected, the car imploded and all that was left were a few pieces of what she thought was the door and a couple bits of rubber._

_By the time she'd looked back, the demon was gone. If a chase was what he wanted, she was up for that!_

____________

"What exactly did the book say Piper?"

"It more or less implied that he's just like every other upper level demon, as in we vanquish him the way we would any other, a potion or power of three spell." Piper explained. "Difference is, he has this weird ass power that diminishes corporeal matter. That wasn't an energy ball. It was an anti matter ball"

"Why have we never heard of him before?" You think we'd at least recognise every being in the book by now, Phoebe thought to herself.

"Yet another demon imprisoned by a fearful leader of the underworld. Where is Paige? I called for her like 5 minutes ago…" The sentence trailed off as Piper glared to ward the ceiling. As she entered the attic, she was greeted by the white blue lights of her sister.

"I'm _here_ already, what's the panic?" Paige asked. "I do have charges, you know. Messes to clean up other than ours!"

"Paige, bitch later. I am not getting sucked back into a full blown battle again, not if I can avoid it." Piper instructed as she took her place in front of the book, a sister at each side. "Phoebe got attacked, so we're gonna summon his ass here, vanquish him and then I'm gonna get back to making lunch for my kids." She flipped through the book and stopped at the page about a demon called Cranous. "Chant"

As Piper started, her sisters joined her.

"Demon Cranous, here our call

At our feet, appear and fall

With these words, we summon now

Another way we don't know how"

As they finished the chant, the atmosphere changed and became charged with energy. A wind picked up out of no where and circled the room. As it intensified, it drew itself toward the centre of the room. When it was tight enough, Piper gave a nod to Paige, who orbed the crystals into position. The wind died and left behind a man who looked to be around 25. As he focused on the three women in front of him his calm expression became one of deep disgust.

He retracted an arm and shot an anti matter ball at them which recoiled off the crystal cage. He caught it in his palm and put it out.

"Nice reflexes." Paige commented.

"Shame they'll do you no good in a magically charged cage." Piper teased.

Seeing his reaction Phoebe couldn't help but to rub salt in the wound. "Bet you're getting sick of being locked in a cage. Aren't ya?"

To this, he let out an ear piercing scream, causing the sisters to recoil slightly.

"OK, next spell." Piper turned to the next page and they began to chant again.

"From the day of creation,

To evil you swore

But by your anti matter

You'll be no more"

He screamed in agony as the power of three ripped him apart and he imploded into nothing.

"So much for our quiet lives" Paige commented.

"Blame her!" Piper quipped as she glanced at Phoebe.

"What?" Phoebe asked, her face in an expression of mock confusion.

**Opening Credits**


End file.
